Faith leads a believer to see in the other a brother or sister to be supported and loved. Through faith in God, who has created the universe, creatures and all human beings (equal on account of his mercy), believers are called to express this human fraternity by safeguarding creation and the entire universe and supporting all persons, especially the poorest and those most in need.
This transcendental value served as the starting point for several meetings characterized by a friendly and fraternal atmosphere where we shared the joys, sorrows and problems of our contemporary world. We did this by considering scientific and technical progress, therapeutic achievements, the digital era, the mass media and communications. We reflected also on the level of poverty, conflict and suffering of so many brothers and sisters in different parts of the world as a consequence of the arms race, social injustice, corruption, inequality, moral decline, terrorism, discrimination, extremism and many other causes. … Read more »… lire la suite »
The “Document on Human Fraternity for World Peace and Living Together” signed on Monday afternoon in Abu Dhabi by Pope Francis and the Grand Imam of Al-Azhar, Ahmad el-Tayeb, is not only a milestone in relations between Christianity and Islam but also represents a message with a strong impact on the international scene. In the preface, after affirming that “Faith leads a believer to see in the other a brother or sister to be supported and loved”, this text is spoken of as a text “that has been given honest and serious thought”, which invites “all persons who have faith in God and faith in human fraternity to unite and work together”. … Read more »… lire la suite »
Following an initiative by the then-Archbishop of Buenos Aires, today Pope Francis, the Argentine bishops together with leaders of Islam and Judaism in the country signed a declaration “for dialogue and coexistence” on Friday. “There’s a double scope to the document: firstly, to reaffirm that any invocation of violence in the name of religion is completely wrong. Secondly, to reaffirm interreligious dialogue, which in our country is one of the few that have actually worked,” said Bishop Oscar Ojea, president of the Argentine bishops’ conference, after signing the document. Speaking with Crux, the prelate defined the document as a reaffirmation of the one signed in August 2005, when Cardinal Jorge Mario Bergoglio of Buenos Aires, today Pope Francis, was the president of the bishops’ conference. … Read more »… lire la suite »
A social media campaign to help educate Canadians about Muslim women has its roots in Saskatoon.
The Ahmadiyya Muslim Jama’at launched a national campaign this week based around the Twitter hashtag #JeSuisHijabi.
“After the Paris attacks … there’s a lot of misconceptions in Canada and the U.S.,” 17-year-old Naiela Anwar explained. “We thought it was important that we gave our point of view, and show that not all Muslims are like that.
Key stakeholders in a new inter-religious centre in Nigeria have met to plan for the centre and its work, set to launch in March 2016.
The meeting was held at the Ecumenical Institute in Bossey, Switzerland, 27 to 28 September.
Institutions represented were the Jordanian Royal Aal Al-Bayt Institute for Islamic Thought (RABIIT), the World Council of Churches (WCC), the Christian Council of Nigeria (CCN) and Jama’atu Nasril Islam (JNI).
The project has developed as a result of a high-level international inter-religious visit to Nigeria by representatives of the WCC and RABIIT in 2012. … Read more »… lire la suite »
The events of recent times cause many of us to ask: ‘Is there still space for dialogue with Muslims?’. The answer is: yes, more than ever. Firstly because the great majority of Muslims themselves do not identify with the current acts of barbarism. Unfortunately today the word ‘religious’ is often associated with the word ‘violence’, whereas believers must demonstrate that religions are required to be heralds of peace and not violence. To kill in the name of religion is not only an offence to God, but it is also a defeat for humanity. … Read more »… lire la suite »
The Centre for Interreligious Dialogue of the Islamic Culture and Relations Organisation and the Pontifical Council for Interreligious Dialogue held their Ninth Colloquium of dialogue from 24 to 26 November in Teheran, Iran, under the joint chairmanship of Abuzar Ibrahimi Turkaman, president of the Islamic Culture and Relations Organisation, and Cardinal Jean-Louis Tauran, president of the Pontifical Council for Interreligious Dialogue. At the end of the meeting, the participants agreed on the following: … Read more »… lire la suite »
The letter, issued on 24 September, condemns actions of the IS from an Islamic religious perspective.
“The meticulous, detailed and scholarly rebuttal of the claims of the IS to represent authentic Islam offered by this letter will be an important resource for Muslim leaders who seek to enable people of all religions to live together with dignity, respecting our common humanity.”
“I am especially concerned at present for the safety and flourishing of Christian communities in the Middle East, as well as in other continents. This document is a significant contribution to how we together as people and leaders from our faith perspective and address threats to our one humanity,” Tveit said.
“We look forward to continuing to collaborate with our key Muslim friends and partners, a number of whom are signatories of this letter, to work together with them for peace and justice throughout the Middle East and in other parts of the world,” Tveit concluded.
The Committee on Ecumenical and Interreligious Affairs of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) reasserted their commitment to dialogue with other religions and Muslims in particular in a statement developed between October 2013 and its release August 19. The committee, which is chaired by Auxiliary Bishop Denis J. Madden of Baltimore, listed tensions between Christians in Muslims in different parts of the world as a primary reason for reaffirming the need for dialogue.
“We understand the confusion and deep emotions stirred by real and apparent acts of aggression and discrimination by certain Muslims against non-Muslims, often against Christians abroad,” the bishops wrote. “Along with many of our fellow Catholics and the many Muslims who themselves are targeted by radicals, we wish to voice our sadness, indeed our outrage, over the random and sometimes systematic acts of violence and harassment—acts that for both Christians and Muslims threaten to disrupt the harmony that binds us together in mutual support, recognition, and friendship.” … Read more »… lire la suite »
The Vatican, the Anglican Communion and a leading Muslim institution signed a historic agreement to work together to end human trafficking worldwide by 2020.
The new accord, signed during a Vatican news conference March 17, launched the beginning of the Global Freedom Network, which hopes to expand to include all the world’s major faiths.
The global initiative aims to prevent modern forms of slavery; to protect, rescue and rehabilitate victims; and to promote concrete measures that condemn or criminalize human trafficking.
In a joint statement, the accord’s signatories called human trafficking and modern forms of slavery “crimes against humanity” and called for urgent action by all faith communities to join the effort to “set free the most oppressed of our brothers and sisters.”
“Only by activating, all over the world, the ideals of faith and of shared human values can we marshal the spiritual power, the joint effort and the liberating vision to eradicate modern slavery and human trafficking from our world and for all time,” the joint statement said.
“This evil is man-made and can be overcome by faith-inspired human will and human effort,” it said. … Read more »… lire la suite »
“The biggest benefit of the project was my friendship with Sheikh Afifi. If I don’t see him for a few days, I always call him. I never dreamed that I would ever speak in a mosque, but through this friendship I’ve now shared at mosques in Alexandria and Cairo. “ Father Boutros Boutros, Coptic Priest in Alexandria.
The Imam-Priest exchange initiative for 2014 opened at Al Azhar al Shereef, at the invitation of the Grand Imam. The 30 imams and 30 priests who participated in the initiative in 2013 shared what they learnt and were presented with certificates. … Read more »… lire la suite »
The Vatican will restart its stalled dialogue with Sunni Islam’s main theological centre, Al-Azhar University, said Fr. Rafic Greiche, spokesman for Egypt’s Catholic Church.
Talks between the Vatican and Al-Azhar were suspended by the Muslim university in 2011 following a series of remarks made by now-retired Pope Benedict XVI.
Greiche spoke to Catholic News Service in Cairo Dec. 4, a day after Comboni Father Miguel Ayuso Guixot, secretary of the Pontifical Council for Interreligious Dialogue, met at the prominent Muslim university with Abbas Shouman, deputy to Al-Azhar’s grand imam, Sheik Ahmad el-Tayeb.
“There was a meeting in a positive atmosphere, and both (sides) agreed to continue,” Greiche said. … Read more »… lire la suite »
Muslim leaders from across the globe knelt in prayer for the Holocaust dead at Auschwitz’s notorious Wall of Death on Wednesday, in an emotional visit to the Nazi German death camp in southern Poland.
Imams from Bosnia, India, Indonesia, Jordan, Palestine, Saudi Arabia, Turkey and the United States offered traditional Muslim “salat” prayers facing south toward their holy city of Makkah, shoes removed, during a Holocaust awareness visit to the site.
Thousands of Auschwitz prisoners perished at the wall, which is grey and still riddled with bullet holes. It is a stone’s throw from the infamous wrought iron “Arbeit macht frei” (Work makes you free) gate at the camp’s entrance. … Read more »… lire la suite »
Interfaith is going global. For a long time it had been primarily about Christian-Jewish relations in western countries with occasional attempts to include Muslims and local representatives of other religions.
Eighty per cent of all Christians once lived in Europe and North America. Today, two-thirds live in Latin America, Africa and Asia where they only rarely encounter Jews but interact with many other faiths. And some 600 million Muslims live nowadays in non-Muslim countries.
This demographic transformation — complicated by pockets of Muslim militancy on the one hand and, especially after Sept. 11, western Islamophobia on the other — has shifted the focus of interreligious dialogue. The conflict between Israel and the Palestinians has also become a factor. … Read more »… lire la suite »
The next generation of Canadian rabbis will be able to point to the Catholic roots of their training – or at least of their school. The Canadian Yeshiva and Rabbinical School will begin offering classes this fall in a classroom at the University of St. Michael’s College Faculty of Theology, part of the Toronto School of Theology (TST).
Canada’s future imams will have a similar story. A master’s program in Muslim studies is taking shape at the United Church of Canada’s seminary, Emmanuel College [also at TST]. … Read more »… lire la suite »
The Centre for Inter-Religious Dialogue of the Islamic Culture and Relations Organisation (Tehran, Iran) and the Pontifical Council for Inter-religious Dialogue held their seventh colloquium in Tehran from 9 to 11 November under the joint presidency of Mohammad Baqer Khorramshad, president of the Islamic Culture and Relations Organisation, and of Cardinal Jean-Louis Tauran, president of the Pontifical Council for Inter-religious Dialogue. … Read more »… lire la suite »
“Our theology is not the same,” said Prince Ghazi bin Muhammad bin Talal of Jordan, “but we are all in the same boat.” The prince was addressing an assembly of Christians and Muslims gathered in Geneva, Switzerland to mark the beginning on Monday of a four-day international consultation on Muslim-Christian dialogue. … Read more »… lire la suite »
Catholics and Muslims Against Manipulation of Religions
The annual meeting of the Joint Committee for Dialogue of the Pontifical Council for Inter-religious Dialogue and the Permanent Committee of al-Azhar for Dialogue among the Monotheistic Religions, was held in the Egyptian capital city of Cairo on 23 and 24 February. … Read more »… lire la suite »
US Muslims and Catholics discuss role of faith in the public square
Muslims and Catholics discussed religion in the public square at an interreligious dialogue, October 25-27, in Milwaukee. Deliberations began with a well-attended public lecture entitled, “Faithful Citizenship – Catholic and Muslim Engagement in Civic Life” at the Islamic Center School. The Catholic perspective was presented by Michael Hovey, coordinator of the Office for Ecumenical and Interfaith Affairs of the Archdiocese of Detroit. The Islamic perspective was given by Dr. Irfan Omar, Professor of Islamic Studies at Marquette University.
Peace and Justice? Mennonite and Shiite perspectives in dialogue
Seventeen Mennonite-Christian and Shiite-Muslim scholars of religion met together for four days in Qom, Iran, to discuss the theme of peace and justice. The dialogue conference was planned and hosted May 24-27, 2009 by the Imam Khomeini Education and Research Institute (IKERI), under the direction of its president, Ayatollah Mesbah-Yazdi. Mennonite Central Committee (MCC) organized and sponsored the conference from the Mennonite side. The dialogue was the fourth in a series begun in 2002.